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COLUMBIA – South Carolina baseball coach Chad Holbrook says he has never been through a period like the one he is currently experiencing.

His Gamecock baseball team, which has been ranked as high as No. 4 nationally this season, is mired in possibly its biggest slump in two decades.

USC has dropped four straight games and six of its last nine. The team enters this weekend's Southeastern Conference series against Vanderbilt with a 23-15 record

The Gamecocks have struggled so much that D1Baseball.com doesn't have them in its 64-team NCAA postseason field.

"We're going to have to turn our mood around a little bit and start feeling better about ourselves and try to play the best we're capable of playing," said USC coach Chad Holbrook.

With a 6-9 SEC mark, the Gamecocks are tied for fourth in the Eastern Division and are in a four-way tie for eighth overall.

The team is 11th in batting with a .262 average. It is ninth in runs scored with 216.

While the Gamecocks are struggling in most areas, Vanderbilt is one of the nation's elite teams as the defending national champion leads the SEC Eastern Division with an 11-4 mark and is 28-10 overall.

When the Commodores take the field on Thursday it will be led by junior Carson Fulmer (6-1, 1.89), considered possibly the top college starter in the nation.

"He is probably the best pitcher in college baseball," said Holbrook. "He is the face of college baseball from a pitching standpoint. Obviously, what he has done in his time at Vanderbilt is extremely impressive. In many ways, as a right-hander, he has been to them what Michael Roth was to us."

South Carolina will probably counter with Vince Fiori (2-0, 2.45 ERA) who has spent most of his USC career in the bullpen.

He has been forced into action due to a season-ending elbow injury to Friday night starter Wil Crowe, which calls for Tommy John surgery in his right elbow.

"I think Fiori is going to Thursday night to get us off to a good start, hopefully," said Holbrook. "We have some other guys ready and we'll probably use four or five guys."

With 18 regular season games remaining, the Gamecocks need to win 17 to get to the 40-win mark. The last time a South Carolina squad did not win at least 40 was 1999 when it finished 35-23.

For the time being, the Gamecocks are simply going to try to turn things around and to play its best baseball against a Murderers' Row of SEC opponents as it must face highly regarded LSU and No. 1 Texas A&M.

"We're just looking to take it one game at a time right now,' said USC second baseman Max Schrock. "We're looking to play our best baseball and play hard every time we go out there.

"It is going to be fun for us to go out there. Hopefully, we'll have a lot of fans out there and it will be a fun weekend."

The Gamecocks will have to be at their best as Vanderbilt is hitting .300 and has scored 51 more runs than USC.

Holbrook believes South Carolina can get the ship righted, but understands the Gamecocks will have to make it happen.

"We'll hit a ball on the screw and it'll be caught and we'll feel sorry for ourselves and you can't do that," said Holbrook. The next guy has to hit a ball on the screws and the next guy has to hit a ball on the screws until the ball falls in. We're looking around for answers when we think something good should happen and you can't think something good should happen, you have to make something good happen."